The development of Human Language Technology (HLT) is one of the important by-products of the information revolution. However, the level of knowledge and skills in HLT for African languages remain unfortunately low as most African scholars continue to work within the frameworks of knowledge production for an industrial society while the information age dawns. This paper reports the work of African Languages Technology Initiative (Alt-i) over a five-year period, and thereby presents a proposal for the acceleration of the development of knowledge and skills in HLT for African languages.